2.1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to compositions useful for reducing the amount of formaldehyde released, for example, from durable press treated fabrics and during the manufacture of particleboard. More particularly, the present invention relates to compositions useful as formaldehyde scavengers which are uniquely effective in reducing the amount of formaldehyde released from durable press treated fabrics and during the manufacture of particleboard, and subsequently without detracting from the properties of the fabrics or the particleboard.
The term "fabric" as used herein means products and objects made from natural textile fabrics such as jute, sisal, ramie, hemp, and cotton as well as many of the synthetic organic fibers, such as rayon, cellulose esters, vinyl resin fibers, polyacrylonitrile and copolymers thereof, polymers and copolymers of olefins such as ethylene, polyimide or nylon types, and the like. The fabrics used can be those of a single composition or a mixture of fibers.
The term "durable press treated fabric" as used herein means fabrics as described above which have been imparted with crease and wrinkle resisting properties under both wet and dry conditions by heating, drying, and curing with a finishing agent such as glyoxal resin, formalin, ureaformaldehyde resin, dimethylolurea, dimethyl ether of ureaformaldehyde, melamine formaldehyde resins, cyclic ethylene urea formaldehyde resins, e.g. dimethylol urea, triazine-formaldehyde resins, triazone - formaldehyde resins and the like which are well known in the art and need not be described in detail here.
The term "particleboard" as used herein means an article used in construction of buildings. It is manufactured by compressing sawdust mixed with a resin and heating to cure the resin. The resin is normally a formaldehyde resin.